Hope your July 4 holiday is a blockbuster.

June 26-30, 2008 – This gay pride week, 39 years after the Stonewall riots in New York City launched a civil rights movement, is also a presidential election year, so we checked in to see how the candidates were celebrating.  While none of the presidential contenders actually marched in a gay pride parade, like New York Governor David Paterson did, a candidate’s spouse gave a nod to the queer community.  Michelle Obama gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Committee’s Gay & Lesbian Leadership Council gala on June 26.  The next day we found former presidential candidate and current senator Hillary Clinton talking to graduates of the Eagle Academy for Young Men, an all-male high school that is apparently not all gay, and certainly excludes lesbians.  We dashed to Pipersville, Pennsylvania on Monday where Republican John McCain spoke at a town hall-style meeting that turned not to be a gay pride event.

New York, June 25, 2008 – Josh Peck, star of the popular Nickelodeon kids’ show Drake & Josh, studied the masters to prepare for his role as a pot smoking dope dealer in The Wackness.  “I channeled the spirits of Cheech and Chong, and I surrounded myself with people with intense mental illness”, Peck told us at the Cinema Society screening on Wednesday. Peck grew up in New York City, and while he did not deal drugs, he says he got up to typical teenage mischief, like scrawling graffiti with his buddies from the Professional Performing Arts School in Manhattan. 

In Peck’s opinion, Mary-Kate Olsen’s make out session with Ben Kingsley was not the strangest bit on the set. “It was surreal watching Method Man pass a fake joint to Sir Ben Kingsley.  I didn’t ever think I was going to see a knight accept that”, Peck says. 

Co-star Olivia Thirlby, also a New York native, says she's not fast like her character in the film.  “Me partying is me and like, max three friends sitting at home and watching a movie”, Thirlby tells us. 

New York, June 23, 2008 – What’s weirder than throwing the launch party for your Dubai hotel in New York City?  Having everyone speculating about the cause of Demi Moore’s skinned knee.

Donald Trump launched his Trump International Hotel & Tower Dubai with a lavish party in a geodesic dome-like structure outside the iconic Seagram Building in Manhattan on Monday, and tongues are wagging about the bruise on Demi Moore’s knee.  Theories we’ve heard bandied about include cosmetic surgery and, er, rug burn.  Yes, people are talking about Demi Moore’s skinned knee.

The line of guests waiting to get into The Donald’s party stretched down 52nd street, blocking the entrance to the Four Seasons Restaurant, which is located in the same building.  Hopeful crashers name-dropped furiously, and there wasn’t enough room for all of the photographers that turned up, creating an impromptu blue carpet arrival line outside the venue.  There was plenty of picture taking with Naomi Watts and Heidi Klum joining the Trump family for the bash. 

New York, June 19, 2008 – There was lots of pop music nostalgia at this year’s Songwriters' Hall of Fame induction ceremony, with honorees like the Coal Miner’s Daughter Loretta Lynn, the Lovin’ Spoonful’s John Sebastian, Canadian pop music queen Anne Murray and composer Alan Menken, who wrote the songs for Broadway and film musicals like Little Shop of Horrors, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin.  Inductee Albert Hammond, who wrote household-name ditties like “It Never Rains in Southern California”, had his son, The Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr., cheering him on at the gala.  These famed musicians did not have to sing on the big night; they were treated to top-shelf entertainment from the likes of John Legend, Lee Ann Womack and Natasha Bedingfield. 

Photos: Caroline Torem-Craig

New York, June 19 2008 – There’s the Naked Cowboy in Times Square, and apparently he spawned a female imitator, the Naked Cowgirl (although we personally have never seen her, she has a Web site with photos and video.) 

Perhaps it was their grandmother we ran into yesterday on Times Square?  She billed herself as the “Naked Cowgirl”, but unless the other Naked Cowgirl has aged a lot since she posted the photos on her Web site, it’s safe to say this is a knockoff. 

This being New York, a copyright infringement lawsuit can’t be far off, right?

Photos: Caroline Torem-Craig

New York, 17 June 2008 – This year’s Whitney Art Party outdid itself, with a torrent of celebrities, art-world luminaries and fashion designers streaming into the Skylight Studios, downtown in trendy Shnot.  A burst of flashbulbs went off while we were chatting with Spider-Man star James Franco – first daughter Barbara Bush had arrived.  Sean Lennon, Monique L’Hullier, newlyweds Eli Manning and Abby McGraw, Sean Avery and Ivanka Trump were just a few of the other notable folks at the party. 

Many of the female guests wore the Herve Leger bandage dresses that Max Azria, the evening’s sponsor, revived – and they all pulled off the form-fitting frocks sensationally. Rocking a short white bandage dress, Rachel Bilson told us what she’d been up to while in New York – shopping in the meatpacking district that afternoon.   Gossip Girl star Michelle Trachtenberg talked up her line of jewelry, called Bella Veritas, that she makes on her dining room table.  “It’s all handmade by me, one of a kind pieces.  It just sort of started out as fun gifts for my friends and it escalated into we should sell this in stores”, she tells us. 

Eva Amurri collects black and white photographs, but has not worked up the courage to bid at a live art auction.  “I’d be too scared to, like I’d put my hand up when I wasn’t sure”, she said as she made her way through the cavernous space, eyeing possible acquisitions – this was a silent auction, after all.

New York, 17 June 2008 -- The last time Trans Am played the Knitting Factory they did so without their talismanic drummer Sebastian Thomson who had fallen ill.  Tuesday night, however Thomson was in rude health and wearing a gold "dookie" rope!  Thomson's band mates Nathan Means and Phil Manley were equally up to the task for the first of two shows they played at the Knitting Factory that evening. 

The three-piece rock band from Bethesda, Maryland has recorded eight full length albums over their dozen year history and has a sound that can be described as Kraftwerk meets AC/DC.  In addition to guitars, Trans Am make healthy use of vintage keyboards, but not in the gimmicky manner of Crystal Castles.  Twice during Trans Am's set they were joined by Sebastian's saxophonist brother Julian Thomson who peeled off the Futureworld's opening track "1999", and nicely set up the song that followed, "Television Eyes." 

Earlier in the evening Ex-Models shadow outfit Knyfe Hyts slashed their way through their own set in support of their simultaneous debut releases Knyfe Hyts and Sword of the Lord. - Damien Neva

Photos: Damien Neva